Almost every week, drill instructors greet dozens of young men arriving at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego by screaming orders in their faces. Over the next 13 weeks, the recruits will endure a training ritual that's part exercise, part drill, part motivation and part hazing. The process will break some and drive most to tears.

WASHINGTON – Congress gave final approval yesterday to a plan that will spare millions of filers higher tax bills for 2007. The White House welcomed the development and said President Bush would sign the bill. The one-year reprieve postpones an expansion of the alternative minimum tax, a parallel tax system enacted in 1969 to prevent wealthy investors from using deductions and tax shelters to avoid paying income tax altogether.

The embattled former principal of the nationally recognized Preuss School at UC San Diego attacked university auditors yesterday for blaming her for a grade-tampering scandal, and said they have no evidence to support their conclusions.

Some days, even before you punch the clock, you just know it's going to be a tough, rugged, long, challenging, unforgiving day. For Joe Mariano, that would be yesterday. He drives for UPS. He's had the job 19 years, so he knew all too well what he would face yesterday – the company's busiest day of the year.

SACRAMENTO – Federal officials yesterday finalized what they have portrayed as the accidental approval of four big American Indian gambling agreements that still face statewide votes on the Feb. 5 ballot.